as in distinguishing
to understand or point out the difference in
it was hard at first to differentiate between the two styles of music
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Recent Examples of differentiating
In real life, Bright is differentiating herself with slightly longer hair.
—
Kaleigh Werner, Footwear News, 28 May 2026
Cloud infrastructure, identity management and observability all began as differentiating features before becoming non-negotiable layers.
—David Lareau, Forbes.com, 27 May 2026
The market has recently become more discerning in differentiating AI winners and losers in the software space.
—Zev Fima, CNBC, 27 May 2026
That is a differentiating point.
—K.h. Koehler, USA Today, 18 May 2026
While the uses and gratifications model is basically an individual (or user)-centered model, MSD theory, first developed by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur in 1976, goes further in differentiating the microlevels of interaction in relation to audiences and social groups.
—Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 May 2026
The biggest differentiating factor was the use of an agent harness, a piece of code that wraps around an LLM to guide it through a series of specific tasks.
—Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 7 May 2026
On a related note, leaders need to be better at differentiating between truly high-quality thinking, and something copied directly from AI that will make people roll their eyes.
—David Rock, Fortune, 6 May 2026
Even other celebrities have trouble differentiating the pair.
—Laura Lane, PEOPLE, 1 May 2026
Kaleigh Werner, Footwear News, 28 May 2026
Cloud infrastructure, identity management and observability all began as differentiating features before becoming non-negotiable layers.
—David Lareau, Forbes.com, 27 May 2026
The market has recently become more discerning in differentiating AI winners and losers in the software space.
—Zev Fima, CNBC, 27 May 2026
That is a differentiating point.
—K.h. Koehler, USA Today, 18 May 2026
While the uses and gratifications model is basically an individual (or user)-centered model, MSD theory, first developed by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur in 1976, goes further in differentiating the microlevels of interaction in relation to audiences and social groups.
—Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 May 2026
The biggest differentiating factor was the use of an agent harness, a piece of code that wraps around an LLM to guide it through a series of specific tasks.
—Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 7 May 2026
On a related note, leaders need to be better at differentiating between truly high-quality thinking, and something copied directly from AI that will make people roll their eyes.
—David Rock, Fortune, 6 May 2026
Even other celebrities have trouble differentiating the pair.
—Laura Lane, PEOPLE, 1 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for differentiating
Verb
-
This isn’t to say any of these teams would have challenged eventual champion LSU; the point is that distinguishing between teams 10 and 20 for inclusion in a 16-team CFP is virtually impossible.—
Scott Dochterman,
New York Times,
1 June 2026
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The first distinguishing feature is the nature of the problem being attacked.—
Ethan Stone,
USA Today,
29 May 2026
Verb
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The Washington Nationals are in full damage control after an undercover journalist with the O’Keefe Media Group caught now former Director of Community Relations Sean Hudson claiming to be religiously discriminating against Catholic starting pitcher Trevor Williams.—
Jon Root OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
30 May 2026
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The bill carries constitutional concerns, both for clashing with federal authority and potentially discriminating against a narrow class of law enforcement officers.—
Stephen Hobbs,
Sacbee.com,
28 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Differentiating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/differentiating. Accessed 4 Jun. 2026.
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